Open Access (OA)

The term open access describes materials that are freely accessible online and easily discoverable in an Internet search. Providing open access to research and scholarship has become a worldwide movement serving the mission of higher education. Many funding agencies now require open access to publications reporting the results of federally funded research. (See Public Access Mandates.)

In response to pressure from authors, most traditional journal publishers allow authors to post open access copies of their peer-reviewed manuscripts on their websites or disciplinary or institutional repositories. Many peer-reviewed journals publish all of their content open access. Researchers and scholars are now pushing for open access to research data and open access to scholarly monographs.

Open access is strategic for Carnegie Mellon. Open access disseminates as broadly as possible works authored by the CMU community, encouraging use and increasing citations and impact. Open access also enables the CMU community to access works authored elsewhere around the world, many of which the University Libraries cannot afford to purchase.

Glossary

Glossary

Article Processing Charge (APC) – An APC is a fee levied by a publisher for open access publishing. Articles are available open access on the journal’s website. APCs are typically paid by the researcher’s funding agency or institution.

Author self-archiving – Author self-archiving refers to researchers (or their designates) depositing their work in an open access repository.

CC-BY – A Creative Commons (CC) Attribution license that allows users to copy, distribute, display, and make derivative works as long as the author of the original work is credited.

Creative Commons licenses – Creative Commons licenses enable copyright owners to specify what users may do with their work without asking for permission.

Disciplinary repository – A disciplinary repository is an open access repository containing work from a particular discipline, aggregating research produced at different institutions and funded by different agencies.

Embargo – An embargo is a delay between publication of a work and when the work becomes available open access. During the embargo period, access to the work is restricted to those who have paid for access, typically through an institutional subscription.

Gold open access – Gold open access is making your work freely available on the web by publishing it in a journal that provides open access. The final published version of the work will be freely available on the publisher’s website immediately upon publication. Gold open access often entails payment of an Article Processing Charge (APC).

Gratis open access – Gratis open access refers to work that is freely available on the web. It removes price barriers to access, but all copyright restrictions remain in effect. Most open access resources are gratis open access.

Green open access – Green open access is making your work freely available by depositing it in a disciplinary or institutional repository, a practice known as self-archiving. Most publishers specify what version of a work may be deposited and impose an embargo period (delay) between publication and self-archiving. No publishers levy an Article Processing Charge (APC)for author self-archiving.

Hybrid journal – Hybrid journals are traditional subscription (restricted access) journals that offer an option to make articles available open access upon payment of an Article Processing Charge (APC). Only those articles whose authors (or their institution or funding agency) paid the APC are available open access.

Institutional repository (IR) – An institutional repository is an open access repository containing work produced at a particular institution.

Libre open access – Libre open access refers to work that is freely available on the web under an open license. Libre open access removes both price barriers and unnecessary copyright restrictions, typically by attaching a Creative Commons license to signal what permissions the copyright owner grants the user. Increasingly materials are becoming libre open access.

License – A license is an agreement or statement from the copyright owner telling users what they may and may not do with a copyrighted work. By default, all copyrights are reserved to the copyright owner and users may not exceed fair use.

Mandate – A mandate is a requirement issued in a policy. For example, the National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy requires authors to deposit peer-reviewed manuscripts arising from NIH funding in PubMed Central and to make them available open access within twelve months of publication.

Open access – Open access means free online (public) access to scholarly material. Those who want to access and read the material can do so at no charge.

Open access journals – Open access journals make all articles available open access. Some require payment of an Article Processing Charge (APC).

Post-print – The post-print version of a work has been peer-reviewed and revised based on reviewer comments. A post-print may or may not include formatting, layout, pagination, or changes made by copy editors. The author's final manuscript and the publisher's version of record are both post-prints.

Pre-print – The pre-print version of a work has not been peer-reviewed. A pre-print could be an early draft of a work or the version submitted for peer review.

Published article – The published article, also known as the version of record, is the peer-reviewed article that has been copyedited, formatted, and paginated by the publisher.

Repository – A repository is a system for storing digital copies of scholarly work. Typically repository content is indexed and discoverable in a Google search and the full text is available open access.

Restricted access – Restricted access means access to the material is limited to those who paid for access, either through an institutional subscription or a document delivery fee.

Self-archiving – Self-archiving refers to researchers (or their designates) depositing their work in an open access repository.

SHERPA Juliet – SHERPA Juliet is a database of funding agency policies on open access.

SHERPA RoMEO – SHERPA RoMEO is a database of publisher policies on open access.

Toll access – Toll access means access to the material is restricted those who paid for access, either through an institutional subscription or a document delivery fee.